Thursday, July 24, 2014

Yet Another Execution Goes Horribly Wrong

Image from source, Think Progress

We keep having these botched executions, and I know, it's difficult to care. I mean (barring the wrongly accused), anyone on death row is generally an awful person. And I've heard some say, "they deserve what they get." This is the United States of America, however, and we're not supposed to be all "eye for an eye" on criminal justices. There's a thing called the Constitution, and a line about cruel and unusual punishment.

So, what's the reason for all of the problems with something that ought to be fairly easy to do? Well, companies that make some drugs don't want them used for the purposes of causing death. And other drugs? Untested, and who ya gonna test 'em on? Well, looks like, the condemned. And it's not going so well.

[Excerpt]Arizona’s Execution Attempt Goes Horribly Wrong As Man Remains Alive Nearly 2 Hours After InjectionUsing an unusual concoction of drugs this afternoon, Arizona attempted to execute a man on death row. One hour after he was supposed to have been lethally injected, however, Joseph Rudolph Wood was still alive, “gasping and snoring.” Wood’s lawyers filed an emergency request to stay the execution and give the man life-saving help, but it was too late: After two hours, he died. . .

Witnesses said he was gasping like a fish out of water, and writhing. . .it was disturbing to some of them. How can we know it didn't hurt? Executions are not supposed to take two hours.

This is the latest in a string of botched executions. How hard can it be to kill a guy?

I'm on the fence about capital punishment. I'm in the "yes, he deserves this and worse, but do we really want to be THAT country?" We are NOT in good company, when you tally up the countries that allow executions.